Marlon Wayans Says Transgender Child Kai Is the 'Same' as 'They Were Before': 'They Just Have a Beard Now'

Mar. 15, 2025

Marlon Wayans onThe Jennifer Hudson ShowSept. 17, 2024; Kai Wayans.Photo:Jennifer Hudson Show/YouTube; Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Jennifer Hudson Show/YouTube; Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Marlon Wayansis opening up about his transgender childKai, and his own journey toward “beautiful, magical” acceptance.

Right before that, hostJennifer Hudsonasked her guest what he has learned most about himself through the experience of learning Kai was trans.

“I learned that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was,” said Wayans, 52. “I learned that my family — my brothers, my sisters — have prepared me to be a rock in our family.”

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Hudson, 43, also called “the support” that Wayans has been giving Kai “amazing,” and asked him what the journey has been like.

“Those are my babies,” said the father of three, who is also dad to son Shawn, 22, and daughterAxl, 21 months, “I went through the five stages of grief to get to the beautiful, magical place called acceptance.”

Wayans has also faced the challenges of his losing his parents in recent years, with his motherElvira Alethiadying at age 81 in July 2020, while his fatherHowell Stoutendied at age 86 in April 2023.

“All this was happening to me at one time, and then it was just like this universal thing: acceptance,” Wayans told Hudson. “And once you accept, you release, give yourself to God and then everything is all right. It’s better, actually.”

Wayans' interview comes three months after he premiered his specialGood Grief.It marked his fourth special amid a fairly recent foray into standup, with most of his sets based on personal experiences, like his journey to understand andembrace Kai amid their transgender journey.

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Kai and Marlon Wayans in Los Angeles on March 27, 2023.JC Olivera/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

JC Olivera/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty

Speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the release ofGood Grief, Wayans said he was “very vulnerable nowadays onstage,” admitting, “I don’t know why it took me so long to do standup. Now I can’t stop.”

Of comedy, theWhite Chicksstar continued, “That’s my therapy. Life happens, and I go, ‘What’s funny about it?’ I’m literally trying to rescue myself.”

Wayans also said he went through his own transition “from defiance to acceptance. It took me all of a week, and in that week I grew the most that I ever did in my life."

“You understand the purpose of kids and the beauty of unconditional love,” he added. “At the end of the day, in my heart, only thing that matters to me is that my child is happy.”

source: people.com